Posted January 12, 2007, 12:56 PM.

Cold temperatures led to brief snowfall, often mixed with grauple (soft ice, also called popcorn snow), in some of the lower elevations of western Riverside County Friday morning. Most of the snow and grauple quickly melted and did not accumulate, except for near Lake Perris, where hillsides were white in the 8am hour, and also in Mira Loma, north of Corona and Norco.

In Riverside and Perris, snowfall occured in the 7am hour. Sun City, Menifee, Lake Elsinore and the Temescal Valley had snowfall around 8am. Snow was reported briefly in downtown Hemet in the 9am hour, melting as it hit the ground.

Snow was spotted on the ground in some areas along the I-215 in Perris this morning, around 8am.

Ephemeral snowfall was also reported in San Bernardino, Loma Linda and Fontana this morning.

The last valley snow event in western Riverside County occurred on March 11th, 2006. That event, like this one, was moderate in some areas and light in others, although this one covered different areas and the area of snowfall was more extensive.

If you know of other areas in Riverside County (with the exception of the mountains) where snow fell, please tell us.

A few short videos, capturing snowfall, are available:

Snow mixed with graupel, falling in Canyon Crest in Riverside, taken about 7:30am. You can the graupel (soft ice) bouncing off the hood of the car.